(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An air conditioner for a vehicle, which controls the temperature in the interior of a vehicle compartment, is installed in e.g., an engine room located at the front of the vehicle, and a blow-off port of the air conditioner is provided at the front of the vehicle compartment. The cooled air is blown from the blow-off port into the vehicle compartment so that the temperature in the interior of the vehicle compartment as a whole can be controlled. In the case of a vehicle which has a large space in the vehicle compartment, however, even if the air conditioner as stated above is used to control the temperature at front of the vehicle compartment to an optimum temperature, there is a possibility that the temperature at rear of the vehicle compartment cannot be controlled to the optimum temperature. To address this problem, there has been proposed a technology in which a blow-off port of a vehicle air conditioner for a vehicle is provided at the rear of a vehicle compartment, and a vehicle air conditioner (rear air conditioner) is provided at the rear of the vehicle compartment.
The rear air conditioner is disposed between a trim (interior part) and a vehicle body panel (body) at the rear of a vehicle. Since a fan is disposed at the side of an air intake port of the rear air conditioner, operating noise of the fan is emitted from the air intake port to the outer side of the rear air conditioner. Therefore, to prevent the operating noise from being directly transmitted into the vehicle compartment, the air intake port is disposed in opposed relation to the vehicle body panel.
Also, a technology in which a noise caused by an air conditioner provided at the rear of a vehicle has been proposed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 8-15844. According to this technology, a plurality of holes are formed in an upper surface of a ceiling case in a vehicle compartment, which comprises a material capable of absorbing noise, and at least on the upper side of a heat exchanger, so that in a range where the holes are formed on the upper surface of the case, noise is passed through the case without being reflected on an inner surface of the case, and is absorbed by a ceiling material as a noise absorbing material, so that noise can be reduced.
The conventional rear air conditioner is provided in close proximity to a flat cover, and the air intake port is disposed in opposed relation to the flat cover. For this reason, there is a possibility that operating noise of the fan emitted from the air intake port is reflected on the flat cover, and leaks into the vehicle compartment through the trim.
Also, the vehicle air conditioner disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 8-15844 as described above has the problem that noise is reduced in dependence on the noise absorbing effect of a noise absorbing material, and hence noise may not be satisfactorily reduced depending on a noise absorbing material that is used, and an expensive absorbing material has to be used in order to achieve a satisfactory noise reducing effect.